In the most recent Cyber Threat report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), it is clear that UK law firms are a gold mine for cybercriminals.
Given the large sums of money and highly sensitive information that is handled, it's no question as to why UK law firms would be an attractive target for threat actors.
"Organisations in the legal sector routinely handle large amounts of money and highly sensitive information, which makes them attractive targets for cyber criminals. Firms are vulnerable in new ways due to changing patterns of work – accelerated in the COVID-19 pandemic – and the increasing sophistication of cyber attacks. Recent examples affecting the legal sector have led to a growing understanding of the problem at the highest levels of corporate governance, and the NCSC welcomes the increased support and investment in cyber security we’re seeing across the sector," says Lindy Cameron, NCSC CEO.
The NCSC also stated that if law firms work in remote or hybrid workplace environments that they are also more likely to suffer an cyber attack. Remote employees are more likely to connect to unsecured, noncorporate routers.
The report also finds they are “increasingly seeing ‘hackers-for-hire’ who earn money through commissions to carry out malicious cyber activities for third party clients, often involving the theft of information to gain the upper hand in business dealings or legal disputes.”
It's no surprise that phishing is the top attack vector in cyber attacks, with 79% of reported attacks on UK businesses coming from phishing emails. These emails often impersonate Microsoft and Google, claiming to relate to an urgent legal matter to entice their targets to click and enter their credentials.
The NCSC highly recommends helping your users to identify and report suspected phishing emails, and to invest in ongoing security awareness training - and we completely agree. Your employees need proper training to spot and report phishing and other social engineering attacks.
Bloomberg Law has the full story.
